British Baseball Beat: Good weather at last

Apologies for the lack of the typical British Baseball Beat column over the last few weeks.

Just a quick round-up of some of the action …

The National Baseball League playoff race is really heating up to match the rise in temperature.

The London Mets split a double-header with the Herts Falcons at Finsbury Park on 15 July and then split another double-header on Saturday 21st, this time against the Lakenheath Diamondbacks, to put them on a 12-7 record heading into the NBL event on Sunday 22nd.

Herts Baseball Club staged the event and, judging by the BBF report, it produced a fantastic day of baseball.

The Mets and Harlow Nationals could not be split over the regulation nine innings and it wasn’t until the eleventh frame that a winner could be decided, going in favour of the Nationals by a score of 12-11. That victory gave Harlow a league-leading 16-4 record.

Other winners on the day included the Croydon Pirates and the Southampton Mustangs, who needed to get back to winning ways after dropping four in a row. The Mustangs face two difficult home games against the Mets this Sunday, while the Nationals host the Diamondbacks. Herts Falcons are in Croydon taking on the Pirates, with the Essex Arrows travelling to Bracknell to face the Blazers.

Elsewhere, the Liverpool Trojans suffered their second loss of the season on Sunday in Triple-A, with their website stating that the game against Menwith Hill Patriots was an “absolute classic”.  The Trojans had been victorious by a score of 7-2 in the opener, but the Patriots prevailed in an 11-10 walk-off.  As the Trojans put it: “credit must go to both teams who put on a great display of baseball in a thoroughly exciting and entertaining game”.

Meanwhile there was drama in Nottingham as Sebastian O’Dell hit a two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to secure the AA-Midlands division for the Rebels.

With the weather forecast looking good again for this weekend, teams throughout the country will be looking to push on and follow the Rebels’ lead by securing playoff places. The National Baseball Championship is fast approaching and BBF President Mark Salter stated this week that Herts Baseball Club are the likely hosts for the season finale one again.

Full details from all of the action around the leagues can of course be found on the BBF website.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.